Strapping Helms in a Historical Manner

Strapping Helms in a Historical
Manner
D.A.Biggs
From January 2000 until January 2001 The Metropolitan Museum of Art held an exhibition titled “European Helmets, 1450-1650.” On
display were several Medieval and Renaissance helms from their collection. I found a copy of the official publication for the exhibition and
purchased it to add to my library.
I was thumbing through the catalog when I noticed a peculiar
thing: many of the helms on display weighed quite a bit less than the
modern SCA equivalent. Specifically it caught my attention that combed
morions, peaked morions, and burgonets were really pretty light! Most of
them fall in the range of 2 – 5 lbs! In fact, only 14 helms (out of about 76)
weighed more than 7 lbs. I thought about the standard SCA axiom “more
mass absorbs the blow better” and wondered why helms that were actually
built to withstand real (and mock) combat with steel weapons would
ignore this rule.
Soon thereafter I had the opportunity to look at a helmet built and worn by Brian Price (Earl Brion
Thonrbird ap Rhys). As an armorer he has researched not only the way the armor was built, but also the way
it was worn and what was worn along with it. His helm was an eye-opener. (I’ll show it to you later in this
article.) I began to realize that, like a modern soldier’s helmet or a construction hardhat, how the helm is
padded and suspended plays a big role in how it actually works to protect the wearer’s head.
This led me on a small quest to find out how different helms were historically strapped and padded.
This very informal paper you are reading will show historically accurate ways to suspend four types of
helms. I’ll also write a few words about jousting helms. The padding and strapping shown here certainly
aren’t the only ways to do it, but they are ways in which the armorers who made the pieces found that many
examples were originally strapped.
Most of my answers have come directly or indirectly from Brian Price. His excellent book Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction shows ways in which the bascinet and the chapel-de-fer were
strapped. The research and work on the burgonet were done by Patrick Thaden from Dallas, Texas.
Disclaimer: Participation in any martial art or sport can be hazardous. The author of this paper can
accept no responsibility if any reader decides to emulate any of these examples and ends up getting injured,
anyway. While my own helm works well for me, it is up to each practitioner to be sure that his or her
equipment is in good order and fits correctly, and that he or she is trained well enough and acting responsibly enough to avoid injury.
A bascinet
An excellent example of an
historically lined and padded helm is
the one made by Robert MacPherson
(pictured right). This type of lining
serves as both padding and suspension, suspending the helm off of the
top of the head and allowing it to
absorb shock much better than if it
simply rested against the head. Helms
should be made and strapped with
enough space between the top of the
skull and the metal itself to allow
some “give” when the helmet is
Bascinet by Robert MacPherson
struck.
With an eye toward heavy use in martial recreations, Brian Price padded his lining out a bit more
than the Macpherson helm, but stayed with the same idea of lacing or riveting the lining to the bottom edge
of the helm and running a cord through the top of the lining (see the MacPherson bascinet above) to adjust
how high the helm sits on the head.
Brian punched or drilled holes around the edge of his bascinet so he can sew his lining into his helm
with sturdy waxed thread, as shown below. This gives it the added benefit of being removable and, thus,
washable.
The lining after it has been stitched into the helm
Holes for stitching the lining into the bascinet
The figure to the right shows an
interior view of the finished bascinet. For the
padding itself, Brian used horsehair. He
claims that wrapping the long hairs (mane or
tail) around the wadded up short hairs thereby creating a filled tube - gives the best
results. He adds, however, that wadded up
linen or cotton, or some other natural stuffing
works well also. According to David Edge of
the Wallace collection, all of the extant
linings and suspensions are filled with raw
cotton. Just be sure that the helm is padded
enough for its intended use.
Interior view of the finished bascinet
A Chapel-De-Fer
One of the projects in Techniques of Medieval Armour Reproduction details how to go about making a chapel-de-fer, which is a brimmed
infantry helmet popular from the 12th
through the 15th centuries. To the right
is an example of a similar helm (called A pikeman’s pot from the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in NY
a Pikeman’s Pot in the 16th century)
from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City.
This type of helmet is probably the closest period equivalent to
what we recognize today as a construction hard hat. The suspension for
Chapel-de-fer by Brian Price
many hard hats, in fact, is very similar to that of the chapel Brian illustrates. To make the suspension, you make a pattern that fits the inside bottom edge of the crown of the helm
that looks a lot like this:
Pattern for chapel-de-fer suspension
Each “finger” of the pattern has a hole punched through it in order to draw it tight once it is riveted
in the helm, again allowing the wearer to adjust how high it sits on the head. Brian describes the assembly
like this: “During assembly (of the Chapel’s brim to its crown) you can leave out every other rivet so that a
leather band could be riveted into place, either to facilitate the sewing of a linen liner or the addition of a
leather suspension harness.” He goes on to say “The chapel lining is cut from 5-6 ounce leather and riveted
in place using the remaining rivets needed to hold the brim in place.” He also suggests that rivets be left off
for the securing of a chinstrap.
I am of the opinion that many peaked and
combed morions (and other similar helms) were also
strapped this way.
Chapel-de-fer with a leather suspension harness attached
A Burgonet
This burgonet by Patrick Thaden has a quilted linen
lining that fits snugly from the forehead to about the base
of the skull. The very front ¼ and the very back ¼ are
sewn to bands of leather which are riveted to the helm at
the back of the neck (see the figure below) and at the
forehead, just under the visor.
Lining sewn to a band of leather at the back of the
helm
Burgonet by Patrick Thaden
I can say from experience that this quilted suspension
works extremely well to absorb the force of both cuts to the
side of the head and thrusts to the face. This type of suspension, however, is not particularly adjustable and is more
difficult to remove because it is riveted in. The padding
used was tow.
Interior view of lined burgonet
Another interior view of lined burgonet
A Close-Helmet
Close-helmets, and indeed many other types of helms
as well, sometimes have straps between the padded lining
and the helm itself to aid with adjustments and to further
support the head. The straps cross and intertwine in an “x”
pattern and are adjustable by tightening or loosening the
parts of the straps that protrude from the rear of the helm.
It has even been suggested to me that the rondel
sometimes seen at the base of the close-helm was there to
protect the adjustment straps from being severed during
combat.
A close helm from the Metropolitan
Museum of Art in NY
The x-strap in a close helm
Below is a rare close-helmet with its original lining intact. You can see the padding for the chin and
the same basic adjustable shape as the lining in Brian Price’s bascinet. You can also get a good idea how
thick the padding was.
A close helm from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY with the
padded lining still attached
A Jousting helm
I don’t know a whole lot about the martial sport of jousting, but I came across some images that
specifically relate to this paper and just generally interested me. First I found a painting of three different
views of a jousting helm that was designed (and illustrated) by Albrecht Durer some time in the late 15th or
early 16th centuries. (This painting resides in the Musee du Louvre in Paris. I found it in the book Arms and
Armor - published by the Cleveland Museum of Art.) Durer was good enough to include the detail of straps
and ties that normally aren’t seen in portraits.
When you compare this illustration with the padded coifs or hoods pictured below, you begin to see
that the extremely padded hood was strapped and secured to the jousting helm, which was secured to the
jouster’s breastplate. The combatant’s head was quite padded and mostly immobilized inside the helm.
Three padded caps from the XXX museum in XXX
Three views of a jousting helm by Durer
Summary
All of the helms in this paper (excepting the jousting helm) have this in common: The lining or
suspension is attached only to the base of the helm (or the base of the crown). Otherwise it is made to allow
the helmet to “float,” as it were, over the head, not contacting it anywhere else. I can’t explain exactly what
is happening when the helm absorbs blows, but I know this - when I’m wearing my burgonet, I can be hit in
the face with one heck of a hard shot and, even though the tip of my nose was touching the perf plate, I am
not bothered by the impact in the least (except the whole falling over backwards thing). The way the lining
hugs my head and suspends the helmet allows for an incredible amount of force to be either absorbed or
distributed around my face (forehead, chin, etc.).
The linen linings have this benefit as well: they are far more form-fitting than foam, they breath
better (especially the ones with the adjustable tops like the bascinets at the beginning) and they absorb sweat
well. Add that to the fact that, done right, they seem to better protect the wearer from head trauma than the
standard close-cel foam padding and I’d say you’ve got a great reason to try it out and see what you think.
Bibliography
Arms & Armor
The Cleveland Museum of Art
by Steven N. Fliegel
European Helmets, 1450-1650
Treasures from the Reserve Collection
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
by Stuart W. Pyhrr
Techniques of Medieval Armor Reproduction
The 14th Century
Brain R. Price